


Convergence

by NanakiBH



Category: Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, First Meetings, Happy Ending, Holding Hands, Love at First Sight, M/M, Meet-Cute, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-21
Updated: 2016-07-21
Packaged: 2018-07-25 18:06:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7542637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NanakiBH/pseuds/NanakiBH
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When hope and luck meet, fate is born.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Convergence

**Author's Note:**

> I decided that I'd write about how I want Komaeda and Hinata to meet before it has a chance to happen in Zetsubou Hen. And then I guess you can take the ending as how I'd like DR3 to end too, as unrealistic as it is to happen. ...Look, I just really want Komaeda to be happy. It would be horrifically fucked up if he never got to experience a single happy day. So that's what I'm here for.

It was fine, Komaeda thought.

The sun was setting on a day like any other.

It was really fine. Nothing had changed, but at least things weren't worse. He was used to being abandoned, discarded, and ignored, so one more time was just one more in what would probably be countless within his lifetime.

So it was fine. Really.

Things could have definitely been worse, so it was easier to look at it positively and assume that the road ahead of him would lead him somewhere better. Just one foot after the other, he had to keep moving along that one path until he'd find the place where the scenery would change from black to white.

Once in a while, it wasn't bad if he hoped that he could stop, was it? Everyone else around him seemed to be happy with where they were. He was the only one who was still searching, bleakly hoping to find a place where he could sit and rest for a while before he continued. But the road looked long and narrow in his eyes with not a single divergence in sight.

If he sat down in the middle and stubbornly came to a stop on his own, he was sure that all of the things he'd been walking away from would catch up with him. Years of bad luck would find him where he stood and would swallow up his hesitating self. It was too difficult to even look over his shoulder, though. That was where all of his most painful memories were stowed. Together with luck's malevolence, they would surely break him if he ever stopped his feet.

Once in a while, though, he wanted to challenge that fear.

He just wasn't very strong.

As he kept walking with his head down, his shadow spread out far ahead of him – farther than he was willing to lift his eyes. Letting his mind wander, he imagined all kinds of pointless things, like how interesting it might've been if his shadow were another person. But a thought like that was too sad. He would've rather jumped inside of it and closed his eyes inside the darkness.

Moments passed before he realized that he'd stopped. He was stuck staring at the way the front of his shoes blended into the black shape of his shadow. An unsettling, warped silhouette like that was probably what he looked like to other people. It looked a lot like the way he felt.

Standing still wasn't going to get him anywhere.

Placing one foot in front of the other, he stepped forward with conviction– 

–and ran himself right into someone else. It was too late for him to realize his mistake before he was tripping over his own feet and taking the other person down with him.

Thankfully, he didn't feel hurt, but he couldn't speak for the one he was laying on top of.

“Ahaha, just like a fated meeting in an anime,” Komaeda said brightly, remarking on the position they had awkwardly found themselves in; his legs on either side of the boy under him, his hands on his chest. “I'm sorry I'm not a cute girl.”

The boy beneath him didn't seem to find the resemblance as amusing as he did as he stared down at the hands on his chest. “Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?”

“You want to be the girl?” Komaeda asked, even though he knew what he meant. For some reason, he just wanted to see the way it would make the other boy react.

The boy opened his mouth but seemed to think better of whatever it was he planned to say and shook his head. Instead, he laughed. His face was just a little red. “So... Anyway, can you let me up? You aren't heavy, but I've got somewhere to be.”

“Oh. Sure thing.” How absentminded of him. He didn't want to look like a pervert, but the feeling of someone else's warmth under his hands was an interesting feeling – one he easily could have gotten addicted to. Even if it'd only been for a few seconds, he knew that he was going to be left wanting more of it.

Komaeda didn't want him to get irritated with him, so he got off quickly. Despite that feeling, he wanted to reach out and grab his hand, but he forced himself to remember what was appropriate and simply held out his hand instead, waiting for him to take it. The moment the other boy's fingers touched his palm, Komaeda felt happy that his hand was as warm as he thought it would be.

Once he helped him stand, Komaeda reluctantly withdrew his hand. “So where are you going?” he asked. “The only thing in that direction is Hope's Peak Academy.”

“That's where I'm going.”

He looked troubled. A feeling of anxiety was twisting him too. Komaeda could tell at a glance, but it probably wouldn't have been polite to ask a stranger about their problems. As long as he still had enough awareness to remember what was appropriate, he wanted to try forging a normal friendship. He didn't have much longer.

“You look a little lost,” Komaeda said. That sounded alright. “Do you need someone to show you the way?”

A look that was too difficult to understand crossed the other's face. “Y... You go to Hope's Peak?”

Something about what Komaeda said must have startled him. No matter how hard Komaeda tried, he was hopeless again. He couldn't do anything right, even the simplest things.

“That's where I just came from,” Komaeda said. It was odd to see someone going to the school after classes were over, but maybe he had his reasons – like a club or some other after-school activity. He looked sort of ordinary, and he had a familiarly unpalatable sense despair about him, but Komaeda couldn't remember ever seeing his face, even when he researched the students. Though, if he went to Hope's Peak too, then he had to be someone special. Unlike him.

Was it okay to introduce himself?

Was his name worth remembering?

“I'm... I'm lucky,” Komaeda said, failing to give him his name. That hadn't even been what he meant to say, yet it came out sounding and feeling like a lie. “That's all. That's my talent. It's not very special, is it?”

The other boy stared at him for a second, his mouth straight, his brows pulled together, like he was judging him. “I guess there are all kinds of talents. I don't know how 'luck' is supposed to be a talent, but you should be happy that you have one.”

“Y-you think so?” It had been a long time since anyone had told him something so nice. It caught him off guard and made his heart tremble nervously.

“It's more than some people have,” the boy said, a sad and mysterious smile lightly touching his lips. Even if it looked hard for him to smile, Komaeda thought that it was a nice smile. He wished that he could be like that. To be able to smile even in the face of life's cruelest truths...

“Meeting you here must have been good luck. I feel like we get along,” Komaeda said.

All the time, he was forcing a smile, but, at that moment, he didn't have to fake it for himself or anyone else. One came to him naturally. He didn't know what kind of talent that other boy had, but it was probably something nice. Maybe it was something like his own; something worthless until it found its purpose.

Being next to him made him feel... Happy. He couldn't explain it. It was an immediate, unshakeable feeling.

All too soon, though, that boy was walking away from him.

Komaeda turned around, hesitating, unsure whether it would be alright if he simply followed him. He wanted to stay next to him.

“Hey, so, would you like me to walk with you?” he asked, calling out to him.

“No. It's fine,” the boy said without stopping. “I know where I'm going.”

The sight of his back as he walked away looked so lonely. It was a pitiable sight. It made Komaeda wonder if he looked that way too, always walking by himself.

Was that boy walking his own path too...?

“When can I see you again?” Komaeda asked, his throat suddenly tight, his chest feeling even tighter. As the sight of him grew smaller in his eyes, he got the terrible feeling that he would vanish completely the second he blinked.

The other boy didn't look back, but he slowly came to a stop. He hung his head, and Komaeda imagined that he was looking at his feet, at the place where the sun would have been casting a shadow if only they were heading in the same direction.

“I don't think there's any reason we'll ever meet again.”

So then, their meeting was...

No. Surely, whatever followed, their meeting was good luck. That was what Komaeda believed.

* * *

“The real thing is a lot more beautiful. Or maybe it's just my imagination.”

Looking at Hinata, Komaeda captured the light of the setting sun as it was reflected in his eyes. Just like that day, there was a peaceful feeling that Komaeda could only feel by being next to him. The sun was indeed beautiful and the water that lazily lapped the shore at their feet sparkled with glorious light, but neither of those things interested him as much as the delicate smile of the one who was sitting by his side.

“You aren't even paying attention, are you?” Hinata asked, glancing at him from the corners of his eyes.

“You'll have to forgive me,” Komaeda answered. “I've seen the sun set on countless miserable days, but I've never had the pleasure of observing its colors upon your face.”

Hinata reacted to that one, visibly jolting at his bold statement. A second later, after an apparent shift in thought, he started laughing. “That was supposed to be romantic, wasn't it? I mean... It was. It was just a little _too_ romantic. I thought you were just messing with me for a second there.”

It was a relief that Hinata was starting to understand the liberties his brain allowed the words that came out of his mouth, but Komaeda was still disappointed that he couldn't have delivered them in a way that was more easily understood. He never had the opportunity to form his thoughts and feelings into the proper words before they would come tumbling out. Whenever he tried, they didn't sound quite like what he meant them to be.

The problem was, he couldn't tell – not until he would see the way they were received. The ability to judge for himself was gone, lost in the past. Even his most genuine feelings sounded clumsy. Even the gentlest ones could hurt someone unintentionally.

“Unfortunately, I'm still just as worthless,” Komaeda said. He finally dragged his eyes away and stared into the sun.

“Stop saying that, will you?” Hinata grabbed his shoulder and made him look at him. “I figured out why you kept saying that, just so you know. At some point, you must have gotten it in your head that other people thought you were worthless, so you started using it as an excuse. You thought it would be better if people expected less from you.”

“Are you trying to ruin the mood?” Komaeda muttered. He wanted to look away from him, but it was too difficult when Hinata had him fixed with such a firm look of certainty. “You're... wrong.”

The old Hinata might've hit him for acting so stubborn.

“That's a lie,” he said. “You aren't worthless. You don't need to be fixed. I know because...” Finally, his strong gaze weakened and he looked away. Even his hand slipped off Komaeda's shoulder. “I learned that too.”

He said that, but he didn't look so convinced of it. Hinata always sounded certain until he was talking about himself. Before, Komaeda might have mocked him for suddenly dropping his shoulders like that, but, in the eyes of his present self which weren't very different from those of his past self, Komaeda just saw someone who looked a lot like himself.

It was harder to feel resentment for himself when he couldn't resent the one next to him.

“It's no wonder Hope's Peak Academy wouldn't accept you into its main course,” Komaeda said. He hoped that Hinata would follow his thoughts first before reacting to his words. “The kind of hope inside of you doesn't speak as loudly as the hope inside of those who have talent. What they were looking for wasn't hope. How could it have been? Isn't 'hope' different for everyone? It's not something manufactured. They had no right to separate you from the rest of us.”

“Komae-”

“I spent a long time looking for it, but even I didn't know what I was looking for. Hope isn't an absolute source of goodness. It isn't the opposite of despair, either. Hope is just... the ability to look forward to tomorrow with the feeling that it will be a good day, isn't it? It's the feeling that you have something to live for.”

There was a slight look of surprise on Hinata's face. He should have realized it for himself already, but hearing it said aloud must have been unexpected to him. “You feel that way now, Komaeda?”

“Thanks to you,” Komaeda said, smiling. “Your hope has given me more than my luck ever did.”

“Hey, that's not true either. Your luck is...” Hinata winced, his words halting. Komaeda was patiently waiting for what he had to say. He knew what it was going to be, but it looked like Hinata was having trouble saying it, like saying it out loud was worse than chewing on nails. “It's... what... brought us... together...”

Slapping his knee, Komaeda let out a loud laugh. “Priceless! Now who sounds 'too romantic', hmm?”

Hinata clutched his chest as if he'd put himself in physical pain. “Agh- You're right. You were fine before. I shouldn't have laughed... I feel like I just walked into a trap.”

“You set that one up for yourself,” Komaeda sang, quite pleased with the turn of their conversation.

After that, they kept watching the sun as it continued its slow descent below the horizon. At that perfect moment when half of it remained above the water, shining a single glistening path of light through the waves, Komaeda moved his right hand from his knees and placed it over the one Hinata had resting on the sand between them. A part of him still felt surprised when Hinata turned his palm and held his back.

After walking for so long, it seemed that he'd finally found a place where he could stop. He didn't know if Hinata remembered the first time they met, but it was permanently etched into his memory. That day, when he saw him walking away, Komaeda thought for sure that he would never see him again, that he was just another stranger whose path would never intersect with his own. He kept walking forever, hoping that he would find a place where the road would split and take him back to where that boy was.

Looking back, he realized something.

What he should've been looking for wasn't a divergence. The two of them had come from different directions, but their paths converged at the same point. They'd always been walking a little ahead or behind each other, constantly waiting for the other to catch up.

He tightened his grasp.

They couldn't sit on the roadside forever, but he wanted to make sure that his hand always stayed in Hinata's – that the two of them could continue to walk side by side. That way, as long as he was with Hinata, even an endless journey didn't sound so bad.

Just looking at them, it was easy to see how much they had changed. They weren't the same people anymore. They changed each other and became something even more similar. When they were holding hands, Komaeda wondered if they could even be told apart.

“Come on,” Hinata said, giving Komaeda's hand a light tug as he got up. “The sun's almost gone. We should head back.”

Though he was a little disappointed that they weren't going to stay to watch it go, Komaeda followed him up, returning to his feet. The moment he turned his back to the sun, his eyes widened at what he saw.

Before him, side by side, two long, warped shadows spread out far across the beach.

Hinata stopped when he noticed that Komaeda wasn't following. Realizing what he was staring at, Hinata aligned himself next to him and stared at their matching shadows.

“Creepy.”

Komaeda laughed softly. “Really? I think they're beautiful.”

Hinata looked at him, trying to figure out what he was seeing but looked away, getting flustered when Komaeda caught his eyes. “I-I... think I... see what you mean,” he mumbled, his face red.

“They look a lot alike, don't they?” he said. He laughed as he lifted his left arm and waved around his empty sleeve. “Mine's missing a hand, though!”

“Of course it is,” Hinata said, always the type to give the most straightforward reply. “But... I think you're right. I think I see it, and I don't even need to squint. It's...” He looked at him again, giving him a bashful smile. “It's beautiful. Hope and luck go hand in hand. “

Komaeda grinned. “You know, Hinata-kun, I was only talking about our shadows...”

“Now you're just _trying_ to embarrass me!” Hinata cried, lightly hitting Komaeda in the arm with his free hand.

To quiet him, Komaeda kissed his cheek.

That worked.

Hinata touched his cheek and tried to hide his face. “W-well if you do something more embarrassing like that, then... I guess it's fine...” he admitted.

“I could fall on top of you and-”

“Don't.”

A response like that was totally what Komaeda had predicted. Hinata was so easy.

That was the type of happiness he wanted. Because he couldn't see Hinata walking away, he had the feeling that it could continue for a long time – hopefully forever. By luck, the time he had remaining had been made indefinite, so Komaeda wanted to spend all of it with him; gently quarreling, teasing each other, embracing, finding all of the beautiful things along the one path life had given them.

Wanting something that simple... It wasn't too much to ask for, he realized. No misfortune could interfere if he believed in that with all of his heart.

“I love you, Hinata-kun.”

Hinata's face reddened even further. “Jeez, you...” Clenching his teeth, squeezing Komaeda's hand tighter, he leaned against him and gave him a kiss on the cheek in the same spot. “I... l-love you too... So there! We're even. I hope you're happy.”

Yes. He was happy. He loved seeing Hinata embarrassing himself, of course, but he loved hearing those words even more. He'd spent his whole life waiting to hear them spoken to him, so they struck his heart the same way every time Hinata said them.

If he wasn't careful, he was going to start drooling...

“Come on, already,” Hinata said, tugging on his hand as he began to walk.

Without any sense of hesitation, Komaeda followed.

Even if they became separated again somewhere down the road, they would meet again, and he would fall in love with him again. Every time.


End file.
